The state of Czechoslovakia arose in 1918 following the First World War during the collapse of Austria-Hungary. The decades-long struggle of two Slavic peoples for independence from the German nation and state was crowned with success. But now, instead of Czechs and Slovaks, there are ethnic Germans who have lived in this region for centuries and have now become a national minority in a hostile state.
Czechoslovak Germans did not accept the new status. They thought that the Slavic state was oppressing them and violating their rights. For example, it was impossible to find a job in a government institution without knowledge of the Czech language, and German schools were regularly closed.
In total, 3.3 million Germans lived on the territory of the new state, and their share in the Sudetenland, which stretched along the country’s northern, western and southern borders, exceeded 90%.
Hitler’s first attempt
In 1933, the Sudeten-German Party emerged. Chronologically, its emergence coincides with the Nazis’ rise to power in Germany, but it is associated with the NSDAP. (National Socialist German Workers’ Party) appeared later. Initially, the Sudeten-German Party rejected National Socialism, saw the monarchy of the Habsburg era as its ideal, and advocated the annexation of the “German” lands of the Czech Republic to neighboring Austria. Alternatively, German nationalists demanded that Czechoslovakia reform the state, similar to Switzerland, by granting broad autonomy to the Sudetenland.
Adolf Hitler at Prague Castle, 15 March 1939
Wikimedia Commons
However, Adolf Hitler sought to unite all Germans into a single state, even the inhabitants of lands that were never part of the German Empire. The Anschluss of Austria took place in March 1938, and he immediately suggested that attention should be paid to the “terrible living conditions of our German brothers in Czechoslovakia”. Konrad Henlein, head of the Sudeten-German Party, met with Hitler: together they initiated the plan to separate German lands from Czechoslovakia.
In April, the party leader made a deliberately impossible request to the Czechoslovak government: to ensure full autonomy for the Germans in the country as soon as possible. Activists planned to turn the May elections into a referendum on secession and stage a coup. At the same time, German troops began to withdraw to the borders and Hitler signed the “Grun” plan, which envisaged the occupation of the country’s territory.
Czechoslovakia declared partial mobilization and was preparing to repel the enemy. At the time, his army was very war-ready, relying largely on the powerful industry concentrated in the Sudetenland and a network of mountain-fortified areas located there.
An easy march for the Wehrmacht to Prague in the spring of 1938 was out of the question. It was also supported by Czechoslovakia, France and the USSR. Poland was also ready to fight against Germany in alliance with Western countries. Hitler temporarily retreated. It quickly became clear how to organize a larger-scale provocation and persuade the West and the Czechs to make concessions.
“Policy of Appeasement”
Hitler chose the right time to put military pressure on Western countries. Germany lost to the Entente (military-political bloc of the Russian Empire, Great Britain and France) In the First World War, however, this contributed precisely to the spread of Nazism: German nationalists dreamed of revenge, the revival of the power of the German Empire and the return of lost territories.
In Great Britain and France, the cost of victory was not forgotten. French society was shocked by the periodic processions of disabled veterans, where people without arms and legs, people without eyes and disfigured faces walked the streets in rows. British society was also wary of a possible full-scale war.
Therefore, his government forced Czechoslovakia to begin negotiations to resolve the situation and sent Lord Runciman to the country as a mediator. He forced the Czechs to accept the German plan to create autonomous regions and, after returning home, insisted that these lands be transferred to Germany.
“For three or four years the only emotion experienced by the Sudeten Germans was despair. But the rise of Nazi Germany gave them new hope,” the diplomat wrote. The main proponent of the policy of appeasing Germany was British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.
In early September, pro-Nazi Sudeten activists staged riots and the authorities sent the army to suppress the riots. Soon after, Hitler accused Czechoslovakian leader Edvard Benes of trying to gradually destroy the Sudeten Germans and gave a speech at the rally that was considered a declaration of war preparations. On September 13, Chamberlain asked the Nazi leader for a personal meeting. After short talks, the prime minister returned to England and prepared a plan to resolve the conflict together with France.
The Great Powers demanded that Czechoslovakia cede to Germany all territories with more than 50% German population. Initially, the Czech government rejected this initiative.
This was followed by a series of new meetings in which Hitler tried to appear as formidable and determined as possible, giving a performance with false reports of new Czech atrocities and shouting “I will avenge every single one of them, the Czechs must be destroyed.”
This behavior impressed the British but not the Czechs. On 23 September 1938, eight days before Hitler’s declared deadline for the surrender of the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia carried out a general mobilization, summoning a million people within 24 hours. The people were enthusiastic about defending the homeland.
The Nazis promised that the Sudetenland would be Germany’s last territorial claim.
The remark appealed to Chamberlain, who attempted to persuade the British public to accept concessions: “How terrible, fantastic and incredible that we should be here digging trenches and wearing gas masks because of a quarrel in a distant country between two people of whom we know nothing.” “
Meanwhile, to worsen the crisis, Hitler recruited activists of the Sudeten-German Freikorps, an armed group who blew up government buildings and attacked Czech troops.
Munich agreement
A meeting of representatives of Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy was planned for 29 September 1938 in Munich, without Czechoslovakia. Negotiations continued late into the night, but eventually on September 30, the parties signed the Munich Agreement. Accordingly, the German army was required to complete the occupation of the Sudetenland by October 10, and an international commission would decide the future of other disputed regions.
Czechoslovakia was presented with a fait accompli and promised that if it did not agree, it would have to fight Germany alone. Returning to his homeland, Chamberlain famously said: “From Germany I brought peace to our generation.”
The Czechs were forced to surrender and the Germans occupied the Sudetenland with an equipped defense line and numerous mines and factories. For France, the secret agreement was a direct betrayal of the mutual military assistance agreement with Czechoslovakia. After Germany, Poland and Hungary also joined the territory of Czechoslovakia. Hitler forced the collapsing Czech state to accept German occupation in March 1939. Bohemia and Moravia were declared German protectorates.
Polish troops entering annexed Cesky Tesin, October 1938
Wikimedia Commons
It became a forge of Nazi weapons. During the annexation, the Reich simultaneously captured 2,175 field guns, 469 tanks, 500 anti-aircraft guns, 43 thousand machine guns, more than 1 million rifles and nearly a billion rounds of ammunition. This was about half of what the Wehrmacht had at the time. Czechoslovak weapons played an important role in the German conquest of Poland, and during the invasion of France in 1940 a quarter of the Wehrmacht’s weapons came from the protectorate.
The Munich Agreement became the culmination of the “appeasement policy” and after that Western countries no longer made concessions to Hitler.
Source: Gazeta
Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.